United creates Optathlon games for day-of-departure prizes

by Grant Martin on

It’s a long shot, but if all of your attempts to find a better seat, upgrade and improve your upcoming trip on United Airlines have failed then there’s one last thing you can do. Last week, United launched a series of video games on their website with prizes aimed at traveling customers.

What can you win? Among other things, it’s possible to earn the opportunity to skip those pesky long lines at the TSA checkpoint or maybe even win an upgrade to economy plus. All you have to do is play for an entry.

Obviously, United’s new games are targeted at educating the consumer on their full host of products and upgrades, including economy plus (more leg room and closer to the front of the plane) and elite status. And you will have to install a little game widget into your browser to make the games work. But for the chance to win a sweet little upgrade either on the plane or at the airport, it’s definitely worth a shot. Besides, the games are kind of fun.

You can check out the full series of games over at Optathlon.com.

[image credit to flickr’s lovely lemur]

Turbulence hurts: leading cause of in-flight injury

by Tom Johansmeyer on

If you aren’t splattered in a fatal crash, you’re most likely to be injured by severe turbulence. Don’t get shaken up by this, though, odds are the biggest risk you’ll face is a middle seat sandwiched by garlic-eater and a heavy talker (choose which way you want to read that one). While you can’t be saved from the people around you, you can protect our body from a bouncing plane: put on your seatbelt.

The discussion of people getting smacked around in flight on a plane has arisen (again) because of the 21 people injured on United Flight 967 because of severe turbulence. According to USA Today:

Some passengers were tossed around the plane like dolls, passenger Kaoma Bechaz, 19, told The Denver Post. One woman’s head struck the side of the cabin, leaving a crack above the window, and a girl was flung against the ceiling, Bechaz said.

Last year, according to data from the NTSB, 15 of the 22 people seriously injured on flights in 2009 (e.g., broken bones) had turbulence to blame.

Flight attendants, of course, are at greater risk, given that they are more mobile in flight than passengers. Sixty-two percent of serious injuries were experienced by flight attendants, according to an FAA study.

Are you feeling sufficiently alarmed? Yeah, it’s not worth getting upset about. But if you’re wearing a helmet on your next flight, we’ll know why.

[photo by mockstar via Flickr]

Airline fines and delays: The world didn’t end

by Tom Johansmeyer on

How many planes were stuck on the tarmac for more than three hours in May? You can count ’em on one hand: five. This is the second lowest result since the feds began monitoring this metric back in October 2008. A year earlier, 34 planes sat on the ground loaded with passengers for more than three hours, according to data from the Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

May 2010 was the first full month in which the airlines faced stiff fines for keeping passengers out on the tarmac too long. Staying out there for more than three hours exposes carriers to fines of up to $27,500 per passenger.

Four of the five delays in May went to United Airlines on the same day and to the same destination: May 26, 2010 to Denver. They were diverted to Colorado Springs for weather-related reasons. The other delay belonged to Delta. There have been no fines yet, because the matters are still being investigated.The Air Transportation Association, which represents many of the top airlines in the country, says the positive results for May are the result of airline efforts to improve and good weather – not the threat of fines. The association says that declines in waits of more than three hours have been “in decline for over a year,” according to a USA Today report.

While the association claims these factors had a greater impact than the threat of fines, the steep year-over-year drop, the fact that there were only four in April and the plunge to current levels from 25 in March all suggest that the hefty costs associated with stranding passengers have all played a role.

Airline concerns that the new rule would lead to high rates of cancellation seem unfounded, as only 1.2 percent of flights were canceled in May 2010, a slight up-tick from 0.9 percent in May 2009.

Says Kate Hanni, director of FlyersRights.org, which advocated for the stricter rule: “I hate to say I told you so, but I told you so.”

For last second fares, watch for United’s Twares

by Grant Martin on

As the social media monstrosity known as Twitter continues to grow by the nanosecond (did you know that the Whole Foods in Evanston, IL is now on Twitter?), more and more companies in the travel industry are now taking advantage of their followers to lure in new sales.

Sure it’s just another marketing technique, but where travel consumers and producers can really benefit is in the wholesaling of last minute capacity.

In United Airline’s case, the product is called a Tware. We first covered these Twitter Fares around this time last year, and since its inception the concept has really taken off.

In a nutshell, here’s how Tware’s work: Airline capacity managers identify a group of routes that are significantly undersold over a period of time, say, all flights from the US to Australia over the course of June. Knowing that there’s a low probability of all of those seats being sold at the current market prices, the capacity managers block off a bucket full of seats on select flights, heavily discount the fares and call the folks at the Twitter desk.

At the count of three, cheap seats open up and an advertisement goes on Twitter announcing that “A Tware to Australia!” has started. 70,000 highly focused, highly motivated followers suddenly tune in, everyone starts booking and the seats sell like hotcakes.

In the end, United makes some cash, when they formerly would have been flying empty seats and a few passengers get a great deal on tickets. Oh, and United gets a ton of free PR.

The only catch? Since the airline is clearing out empty seats most Twares are for travel within the next month or two. But if you’re flexible, adventurous and have a few extra dollars the formula is perfect for a quick jaunt to paradise.

You can follow @unitedairlines to tune into upcoming Twares. Be forewarned that most Twares only last a few hours, so have your credit card and calendar ready!

[Image credit, Pylon757]

Delta tops list of “most complained about” U.S. airlines

by Scott Carmichael on

Travel + Leisure just released a survey that compiled airline complaint information from the Department of Transportation. In it, the number of complaints per 100,000 passengers were collected. The results are not much of a surprise – the legacy airlines take up the top spots, followed by low cost airlines and regional feeders.

Here are the top 5 airlines from the list:

  1. Delta Airlines – 1.96 per 100,000 passengers
  2. United Airlines – 1.34 per 100,000 passengers
  3. US Airways – 1.31 per 100,000 passengers
  4. Northwest Airlines – 1.21 per 100,000 passengers
  5. American Airlines – 1.07 per 100,000 passengers

The list is based on data from the previous year, so Delta and Northwest are still listed separately. As usual, the low cost carriers score very well – JetBlue made tenth place and Southwest Airlines doesn’t show up till the 19th spot – with a mere .21 complaints per 100,000 passengers. Click here for the complete list, along with responses from the airlines and some background information on how they may have reached their spot.

(Photo credit: AP)